RE: What is the best term to use?

Subject: RE: What is the best term to use?
From: "Lauren" <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu>
To: "'Jan Cohen'" <najnehoc -at- yahoo -dot- com>, "'Janice Gelb'" <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Sun, 21 Oct 2007 21:05:00 -0700

Java uses the term "applet" but that does not mean that "applet" is
exclusive to Java technology. Apparently, other programmers have adopted
the term. I, in my current project, cannot call the applet by another name.
It is not a trademarked term, so I don't see why it cannot be used to refer
to other application technology that refers to a small application in an
application. The origin of the term was to described a short application
and it evolved to refer to small applications that run in web browsers
(bigger applications). Java does not own the term, but Java technology does
use applets.

Lauren



_____

From: Jan Cohen [mailto:najnehoc -at- yahoo -dot- com]
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 8:56 PM
To: Lauren; Janice Gelb; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: What is the best term to use?


An applet is actually a Java application that is downloaded to the user's
browser and executed by the browser's Java Virtual Machine (JVM). In that
sense it is not a stand-alone application. But I'd be careful about calling
"tabs" in any user interface "applet tabs," or something along those lines,
because when the user selects such a tab, they are really executing the
applet itself. If you must bring up the applet in your documentation, my
recommendation would be something along the lines of "clicking on the xyz
tab executes the xyz applet." Or in Zen's original case, "restrict the
functionality of the XYZ applet to read only access by..."

See http://java.sun.com/applets/ for more info about applets.

As for poorly written applets, I have to sympathize with you. For the most
part, they've gotten better over the years, but were real buggy earlier on,
especially when it came to causing memory leaks. Of course, "better" is a
subjective word, and if they're written poorly, even today, well, gigo tends
to come to mind.

jan c.


----- Original Message ----
From: Lauren <lt34 -at- csus -dot- edu>
To: Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 11:29:58 PM
Subject: RE: What is the best term to use?

The application that I'm dealing was poorly designed. The application
receives a great deal of criticism. I think that the application could have
been designed a little better, but I am not in a position to change the
design of the application. It is a web application based in Siebel and
running of an Oracle database. I think Siebel is responsible for calling
the tabs applets. However, there are times when the applets really do not
serve any application-like function that an applet would normally serve.

The nomenclature here may be a little unstable, but as I've said before, if
a tab provides operational functional, then it is probably best referred to
as an applet. If it merely sets parameters or some other option, then it is
probably a tab. Since Zen mentioned that the tabs provided functions
(rather than parameters) I followed the idea that the tabs may be a little
more operational rather than supportive as merely places to set parameters.

Lauren


> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lt34=csus -dot- edu -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
> Behalf Of Janice Gelb
> Sent: Sunday, October 21, 2007 8:19 PM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Re: What is the best term to use?
>
> Lauren wrote:
> >> From: Janice Gelb
> >
> >> I would definitely advise against calling the discrete
> >> entities "applications" as I think users pretty much
> >> think of an "application" as the whole shebang. And
> >> "applet" has a pretty specific technical meaning too,
> >> I think.
> >
> > Applet refers to an application within an application.
> Beyond that, there
> > really isn't a great deal of specifity in the term.
> >
> [snip]
> >
> > We need to remain flexible as web technology grows and
> accept that we will
> > need new terms or new definitions to old terms, but, as technical
> > communicators, we also need to remain ardent in maintaining
> cogent terms for
> > elements within web applications, or any application. How
> do we communicate
> > a thing, any *thing*, if every application developer has a
> different name
> > for the thing? I think that in this case, the technical
> communicator has a
> > bit of duty to determine the term that is used.
> >
>
> I have to agree. Most of the definitions I've found
> for "applet," however, don't seem to be congruent with
> using the term to mean any application within another
> application. See http://www.answers.com/topic/applet
>
> It certainly means an application running within the
> framework of another application but in the context
> in which Zen asked the question, I don't think that
> the term "applet" is appropriate. You might be using
> it in your interface but I still think that technically
> it's not what Zen described. Even the most general
> definition says "An applet usually performs a very narrow
> function that has no independent use." That doesn't seem
> to me to fit a term to be used for several different
> collections of grouped options.
>
> -- Janice
>
> ***********************************************************
> Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
> janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com | this message is the return address
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -- Janice
>
>
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Re: What is the best term to use?: From: Jan Cohen

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